“She’s been a great athlete all of her life,” said Lemus. “She understands what her body is doing so she was able to pick up the sport pretty fast.”

Caniglia remembers it as a tough transition, like the time when she was in a double and flipped the boat.

“It was probably my fault because I was new,” she said. “Everybody was watching us and everybody took pictures.”

Or the time when Caniglia was in a single when another rower in front of her flipped.

“I started laughing and then I flipped,” she said.

Caniglia usually practices crew six days a week, 2½ hours a day. In the spring, they’re on the water almost every day. In winter training, the rowers are running and working out mostly inside — lifting weights, doing yoga or racing on the Ergs, stationary rowing machines. Crew practice follows a two-hour softball practice.

What Caniglia lacks in rowing expertise, she makes up for it in athletic experience.

“They take athletes and make them rowers,” she said. “If you have the power and strength and athletic ability, (that) is all you really need because you can teach anyone to row.”

Cal, Loyola Marymount and UCLA were impressed with her background. But UCLA was Caniglia’s dream school.

“Her diverse sports background will bring a training discipline and a competitive intensity that will help her excel in this sport,” Fuller Kearney said. “We are always looking for fit, feisty competitors who love hard work and Alex fits that mold.”

At UCLA, Caniglia will be focusing only on rowing.

“That’s going to be hard not playing all my other sports,” she said, “but at the same time I’ll be fine without them.”